I order mine from ELF. (eyeslipsface.com) They are very cheap for makeup. A friend recommended them to me, and I have been fine with them. Of course, if you order online, you can't match tones as easy.

Reality: Recycled or no cosplay at all. Got to love commissioning! Thanks everyone!! Serious thanks to Dulcinea, who actually made the deadline for the accessories far in advance and of outstanding quality. Sucks they won't be used.

Are you talking about drugstore makeup or department store/M.A.C makeup?

ELF is pretty good but like Larcenciel said, you can't match tones, which can turn out bad. I'm a really shy person but I find that the people at department stores, MAC or Sephora are realllllyy helpful. Just be blunt and say something along the lines of "I'm unsure of what to get for foundation/concealer, could you help me find tones that work for me?" They'll probably want to know what type of skin you have (oily, dry, etc.) but they are there to help you!

If you can, definitely get some help from department store makeup staff or someone experienced to get the colors right. After that you can order online either directly from the label or elsewhere. I order my makeup from Macy's mainly because the manufacturer's own web site is not very good for it. I like to think that buying makeup in person is a rite of passage though!

As far as online goes, I recommend ELF a lot too. I'm pretty pale so I just buy their lightest shade and that's always worked for me! Some of their smaller sizes are pretty cheap, so if you think you might be in between shades you could always get two of them. I think they used to bundle foundations for first time buyers who don't know what shade they are (I'm not sure if they do anymore).

For in-person makeup, Sephora has always worked for me. Their employees are really helpful, even when I come in looking for really strange things for cosplay.

Hopefully its not to late to give you advice, you really need to go to the makeup counter and get some help. If you dont you could end up ordering products that you dont like or aren't the right color and that's wasted money!

The brand I would recommend to anyone crossplay or not, is Mac. As a company they are also LGBT friendly and used to people asking for drag/crossplay help, they even sponsored a season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Just go to the counter and don't be afraid to tell them what you need the makeup for, if you dont want to mention crossplay just say your in theater and have to do a female character.

Mac has some of the best makeup I've ever used, and the foundation has amazing coverage which you will need for a crossplay. The only down side is Mac products tend to be on the expensive side.

I second MAC though I havn't worked up the courage to go into the store I have bought some of it online and it's amazing. Also they used to have an eBay store that sold products at reduced cost, dont know if it's still there or not though...

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